Accelerator program Zeroth wants to find Asia’s top AI and machine learning startups

Zeroth is an accelerator program that is out to fix the lack of talent, and investment options, for artificial intelligence (AI) in Asia, and it has just opened applications for its second program which takes place in Hong Kong in late July.

Investor and talent shortage

Tak Lo, founding partner of Zeroth, left his role at early-stage venture firm Mind Fund to start the project in 2015, which is Asia’s first dedicated AI and machine learning accelerator program.

“It wasn’t that there wasn’t enough talent, there just aren’t many investors [in the Asia region] focused on artificial intelligence,” said Lo, whose past projects have included Tech City in London, the SPH Plug and Play program in Singapore and a stint in the U.S. armed forces.

The idea is to take 20 companies per batch, with Zeroth offering up to $120,000 in optional funding. That’s a slightly different approach to its inaugural batch, which took in 10 companies and offered each six percent equity in exchange for $20,000.

The program is pretty industry agnostic, and Lo said his preference is to work with early stage companies because that’s where he feels the program can have the most influence.

“Our mission isn’t that all companies should have AI, but everyone to be able to develop in this tech,” he said. “We want it to be in the hands of many not just a few.”

Beyond a standard demo day, the event was live-streamed to selected investors in Seoul, Beijing, Tokyo and Singapore.

“We figured it was the best way to build community and trust in these companies. I think it worked pretty well as an overall experiment,” Lo said. “The companies are fundraising, we view investor day as the kick off.”

Developing A Community

The first Zeroth program was located in Hong Kong, but it has temporary relocated to Japan before the next program opens in Hong Kong. In Tokyo, Lo is keen to recruit venture firms, corporate partners and, of course, founders. Already, Mind Fund invested directly in the program, while others, such as 500 Startups, are closely involved.

“There’s an amount of patient capital here and the liking of deeper tech is a big pro,” Lo said. “Where else we go will be dictated on market conditions and where we are after this cohort.”

A number of regionally-focused accelerator programs struggled to make the grade as a business and shut up shop over the past year. Lo is candid that, for now, there’s no business model set in stone for Zeroth.

“We’re still trying to figure it out, but the AI focus is one because AI is hot but also potentially acquisitive.” he said. “Companies realize this is the next thing. One hypothesis is that M&A deals could provide short term cash flow, while another option is working with funds that are a little more long term.”

Zeroth partner Tak Lo

On the mentoring side, Lo said Zeroth’s advisors have “created more than $1.7b billion in AI company value”. Among them is Antoine Blondeau, who worked on the precursor to what became now Apple-owned Siri and whose Sentient.ai startup is the world’s most funded AI company.